Oakland A S Baseball Team

In describing it, others seemed to do a better job than Jose Canseco, who launched a monster home run in the third inning of Saturday's fifth American League playoff game. For instance, Billy Beane, the Oakland A's reserve first baseman, shook his head and said: "That wasn't just a home run. It was a home run of biblical proportion."

The Angels scored as many runs in the fifth and sixth innings against the Oakland Athletics on Thursday night as they did in their previous four games combined. They had more hits with runners in scoring position (six) in the game than they totaled in their previous eight games (five). The floodgates didn't open -- the Angels didn't come close to their season highs for runs and hits -- but the offense definitely flowed more freely in an 8-3 victory in the opener of a crucial four-game series against the American League West-leading A's at the Oakland Coliseum.

One summer in the 1970s, the Oakland A's best player, Reggie Jackson, was contributing only an occasional home run during a long batting slump. Finally, owner Charles O. Finley called him in, reasoning that he needed Jackson to win another World Series. Defiant, Jackson asked: "You want something?" "Yes, Reggie," the owner replied patiently. "I'm going to tell you what your problems are. Your big problem--you're not going to like this, Reggie--but you think you're God.

OAKLAND -- The team that was supposed to provide the stiffest challenge to the Angels, the Seattle Mariners, has been buried in the American League West, 15 1/2 games back and sporting baseball's worst record (21-39) after the Angels completed a three-game sweep in Safeco Field on Wednesday. And the team that was supposed to roll over in the division, the one that was in obvious rebuilding mode after trading away its best pitcher and position player last winter? The Oakland Athletics, with their $48-million payroll -- less than half of the Angels' $119-million payroll -- are right on the Angels' heels, 3 1/2 games back entering tonight's game against their AL West rivals in McAfee Coliseum and showing no signs of fading.

Jay Howell surely saw him. The fan with the tight jersey and big belly stood in the stands behind home plate before Game 4 of the World Series, shaking his right arm like a noodle, screaming in the voice of a soprano. "I'm Jay Howell, I'm Jay Howell," he squeaked. Four hours later, the Dodger relief pitcher shouted back. Wrong, he said with a fastball to Mark McGwire, with a slider to Jose Canseco, with 32 pitches that may cling forever to his memory. This is Jay Howell .

Was it Gertrude Stein or Bob Costas who uttered the immortal words: "There is no there there"? Actually Stein said that, in reference to the city of Oakland. And NBC pregame host Bob Costas, in slightly different words, said that about the Dodgers' starting lineup Wednesday night before Game 4 of the World Series. Or maybe Stein said that about Costas. I'm not sure. This is a very confusing World Series. I do know that the Dodgers believe they won Game 4 in the locker room before the game.

A decision to ban smoking in outdoor seats at the Oakland Coliseum has rankled fans of the Oakland Athletics. Andy Dolich, A's vice president of business operations, said it will make the ballpark a better place to watch a game, but some fans say they should have the right to smoke during games. "It's an outdoor facility, people are on their leisure time," Janet Weitz of Oakland said. "I mean, if people really think it's going to harm them, let's ban trucks on the freeway during A's games."

From the back of their house in the Marina district of San Francisco, Bob and Mary Ellen Welch can see the sparkling blue of the bay and the orange spires of the Golden Gate Bridge. From the front, they can see damage and redevelopment in one of the areas hardest hit by the earthquake of last October.

See Rickey run. See him steal 65 bases during the regular season and bedevil opposing pitchers and catchers. See him succeed in 12 of 13 attempts on artificial surfaces like the bright green carpet in Cincinnati's Riverfront Stadium, site of Games 1 and 2 of the World Series. "If I played on (artificial) turf, I'd steal 160 bases," Rickey Henderson, the Athletics' left fielder, said after Monday's workout. "You get a lot better traction and power.

Amid the clubhouse celebration that followed the Dodgers' victory in Game 7 of the National League championship series Wednesday night, Kirk Gibson first sought the quiet of the trainer's room, then the solitude of the dugout. He was disturbed by the fact that the media were allowed immediate entry, intruding on the opportunity to share some private moments with teammates. The crush of reporters, minicams and sound gear was comparable, he said Friday, to "the running of the bulls in Spain."

Joe Saunders threw 102 pitches Wednesday afternoon. Take away two of them, and maybe the Angels left-hander throws six or seven shutout innings. Baseball can be an unforgiving game, though, and Oakland made Saunders pay dearly for those mistakes, a fastball that Mark Ellis cranked over the left-center field wall for a three-run home run in the fourth inning and a changeup that Donnie Murphy lined over the short left-field wall for a solo shot in the seventh.

OAKLAND -- John Lackey's 95-mph fastballs might have seemed lukewarm compared with the heat with which the right-hander scorched the Oakland Athletics in the clubhouse after the Angels' 4-3 victory Sunday afternoon at McAfee Coliseum. Miffed that Oakland ace Dan Haren had thrown a pitch behind the back of slugger Vladimir Guerrero in the first inning -- prompting plate umpire C.B.

C.C. Sabathia's pager was inundated all day with text messages from trash-talking friends in California. They were telling him that he was going to lose again to the Oakland Athletics. He sent them a nasty reply. Sabathia joined Boston's Josh Beckett as the only 11-game winners in the major leagues and finally beat his hometown team again, leading the Cleveland Indians to a 5-2 victory over the A's on Monday night.

First the Cleveland Indians, then the Dodgers, now the Oakland Athletics. For the third time in four years, a team dumped Milton Bradley. The A's designated Bradley for assignment Thursday, one day after they activated the oft-troubled outfielder from the disabled list. "Ultimately, there was going to be a playing-time issue," General Manager Billy Beane said.

Milton Bradley made a name for himself this season. A good one, for a change. After two tumultuous years with the Dodgers, in which he clashed with teammates, fans and the media and had run-ins with the law, Bradley capped a relatively calm, event-free and productive season with the Oakland Athletics by thriving amid the pressure of the American League Championship Series. Bradley, acquired from the Dodgers last December, was clearly the best player on the field for the A's, batting .

Anyone have a cell number for St. Jude? At this point, only the patron saint of lost causes might be able to save the Oakland Athletics, who are in danger of being blown out of the American League Championship Series.

The ball could have bounced to the left of third base and into foul territory, but it didn't. It could have bounced to right of third base and into the glove of Carney Lansford, but it didn't. "Ball went right over the base, right over the base," Joe Oliver said afterward, still breathless from screaming. And the Cincinnati Reds could have folded in Game 2 of the World Series Wednesday night, but they didn't.

Dave Stewart proved to be a man of his word Wednesday, but he doubts Roger Clemens is. The bellwether of the Oakland Athletics' pitching staff will be fishing for sturgeon near the Richmond Bridge today, as he had predicted Tuesday. He put the Boston Red Sox out of their misery Wednesday by pitching a 3-1 victory, his second of the A's four-game sweep in the American League playoff. It earned him the most-valuable-player award.

As a media throng closed in on Ivan Rodriguez on Wednesday night, the Detroit catcher, exhausted after an American League Championship Series Game 2 victory over Oakland, plopped down in his chair to conduct his post-game interviews. "Excuse me, excuse me," interrupted a teammate thrusting a large cup of icy Gatorade through the notepads and tape recorders to Rodriguez, who grabbed it as he would a life preserver. Owner of the helping hand? Kenny Rogers.

Sean Casey's American League Championship Series is probably over after the Detroit Tigers first baseman suffered a partial tear in a muscle in his left calf in Game 1. "The trainers, I think, are hoping for a miracle when they say he could return by the end of this series," Tigers Manager Jim Leyland said. "But I think that's probably not going to happen. So I think we'll just have to do with what we have."